There are a variety of physiologically active phenolic substances, including naturally-occurring phenolic compounds, that have been shown to exhibit favorable medicinal or nutritional properties. However, for a variety of reasons, it is often difficult to provide these phenolic compounds in a composition that is readily ingested and suited for delivering the compounds to subjects in sufficient amounts to achieve a desired nutritional or therapeutic effect.
Many phenolic substances are not readily bioavailable. As a result, in order to achieve any benefit from consumption or administration of the phenolic substance, a subject must consume or be administered large quantities of the phenolic compound. In addition, oral delivery of many desirable phenolic compounds has proven difficult or unpalatable to subjects, which can lead to a perceived requirement for parenteral routes of administration and/or the formulation of relatively complex, multi-component, pharmaceutical grade compositions designed to increase the targeted compound's bioavailability.